Homeroom: Sixth-graders from Fremont and Castro Valley advance to state spelling bee

Two sixth-graders from Fremont and Castro Valley are advancing to the state elementary spelling bee in April.

Gomes Elementary's Christina Yu spelled "imbroglio" correctly to win the Alameda County competition. The Fremont student will be joined by county runner-up Isabella Siu, who attends Canyon Middle School in Castro Valley.

The state contest will be April 26 at the San Joaquin County Office of Education in Stockton.

Eighth-graders Karah Pedregosa of Fallon Middle School in Dublin and Meenakshi Singhal of Mendenhall Middle School in the Livermore Valley Joint school district will represent Alameda County in the state junior high spelling bee. That competition takes place May 3 at Miller Creek Middle School in San Rafael.

Alameda County's contest was held earlier this month in Hayward.

Hayward students' work on exhibit

Hayward students' artwork will be on display through May 30 at City Hall.

The reception for the Art Is Education exhibit will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 4. The Tennyson High string sextet will perform and refreshments will be served at the reception sponsored by the Hayward Arts Council.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the Hayward Rotary club is holding a fundraiser for the school arts programs Saturday. Student artwork and other items will be auctioned at ARTScape2014, which will have live performances, appetizers, beer and wine. Admission is $50 for the benefit, which starts at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Berkeley's elementary and middle school music programs are facing budget problems and will either need to cut $205,000 worth of instruction costs or find money in other parts of the district budget, school board members were told Wednesday night.

An increase in the number of fourth and fifth grade students in the past few years has increased class sizes and forced the school district to hire more teachers for the program that has a fixed budget of about $400,000, according to a staff report to board members. The budget is funded through a property tax that increases with the area cost-of-living but has not kept up with the rising number of students in the music program, the report said.

Options presented Wednesday night include eliminating teachers and increasing the instrument loan fee from $10 to $25. Professional development for an "arts integration" program funded by the music program budget could also be eliminated, saving $56,000. The board could also take money from the school district's general fund, said spokesman Mark Coplan. The board will revisit the issue in April, he said.

Application forms are available on Newark Unified's website at www.newarkunified.org. They also can be found at the Newark Unified School District Office, 5715 Musick Ave.; Newark Library, 6300 Civic Terrace Ave.; Newark Senior Center, 7401 Enterprise Drive; and the Silliman Activity and Family Aquatic Center, 6800 Mowry Ave.

Applications must be filed by 4 p.m. Friday, April 18, at the school district office.

Newark's five-member school board will interview qualified applicants from April 28 to May 2.